1.
CV astronaut Irwin
0.06

2.
SV still of Irwin with family
0.14

3.
SV astronaut Irwin with other during desert training
0.18

4.
SV Irwin undergoing jungle training
0.26

5.
SV astronaut Irwin practising parachute landing (2 shots)
0.34

6.
SV Irwin parachuting into water
0.40

7.
SV Irwin during briefing for gravity training
0.43

8.
SV astronaut carrying package in gravity
0.56

9.
CV Irwin pulling modulised equipment on transporter.
1.14

10.
SV Irwin with instructor on lunar rover
1.26

11.
SV Irwin and Scott receive geology training
1.36

12.
SV Irwin and Scott driving lunar rover (2 shots)
1.54



Initials BB/1335 PS/15.02



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Astronauts David Scott, James Irwin, and Alfred Worden are now in final training for their launch from Kennedy Space Centre on July 26, bound for the moon.

This N.A.S.A. film describes some of the preparation for the flight of the mission's Lunar Module Pilot, James Irwin, a 41 year-old U.S. air force Lt.-Colonel. Irwin was one of the 19 astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966. He was crew commander of lunar module LTA-8, used in tests in 1968, and he also served as a member of the astronaut support crew for Apollo Ten, and as back-up lunar module pilot for Apollo 12.

Also seen in the film is his spacecraft commander, Colonel David Scott, with whom Irwin will pilot the lunar rover on this mission. The mission will land on a northern lunar plain cut by a large gorge running along the base of some of the moon's highest mountains.

SYNOPSIS: Lt. Colonel James Irwin is the Lunar Module Pilot for July's Apollo 15 Mission to the moon, and like most of the American astronauts he's family man, living near the Manned Spacecraft Centre with his wife and four children.

Like his predecessors, too, this astronaut, due to be the eightman to step on the moon, has undergone the most searching training in extreme conditions, in desert and jungle conditions, and in parachute training, although he's an air-force man who has done quite a bit of this before. At 41, Irwin has to be as fit as the can be for the mission ahead.

Here Irwin is being briefed for working in one-sixth gravity conditions. He experienced carrying the lunar scientific station under operational conditions in a simulator while he was back-up Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 12.

He also learned to manoeuvre the rickshaw -like device used for transporting gear on the Apollo 14 Mission. Now the takes the full responsibility of being Lunar Module pilot, in a mission bound for the rugged Hadley Appenine area. Not the least of his jobs will be as co-driver of the Lunar Rover, the first automobile on the moon. The electrically-powered rover, designed to operate in the lunar vacuum is a key factor in the Apollo 15 mission.

It has been vital for Irwin, and spacecraft commander David scott to learn as much as they can of the geology of the mountain area set for the landing. The astronauts expect this to be the most scientifically rewarding mission yet undertaken.

There will be three expeditions on the lunar surface, and the time spent there will be 67 hours. Friends say that Irwin's contribution will be.........not much conversation - just results.